The Denver School Board spent five hours meeting behind closed doors after the shooting of two employees by a student who later committed suicide, only to produce a weak, short-term solution to secure high schools from violence.

Board members, many of whom are currently up for reelection, held a press conference afterwards to announce a temporary suspension of their ban on school resource officers, which was enacted under the leadership of Auon’Tai “Tay” Anderson after the George Floyd riots of 2020.

The board decided to temporarily add two mental health workers and two police officers to each high school for the next three months until the school year ends.

But they don’t want to pay for it. At least not with the school district’s $1.27 billion budget.

And yet they’ve already paid in lives lost.

The school board wants the superintendent to convince the mayor of Denver to agree to foot the bill out of city coffers.

The catch to police being back on campus until summer vacation, is that the school board doesn’t want them to do any actual policing, other than to just stand there and look menacing, or something.

Since it was Superintendent Alex Marrero’s idea to bring back police immediately after this week’s shooting without board authorization, the board said he has to give them monthly disaggregated reports to include every ticket issued or arrest “to ensure armed officers are only there for safety purposes.”

In other words, police are expected to act as armed mall cops, but with better manners and pressed uniforms.

With blood on their hands, the greater good came so close to outweighing the progressive politics that expelled police off campus in the first place.

Mayor Hancock has already signaled his willingness to work with the school district, after not so subtly dinging them for cancelling the school resource officer program in the first place.

What remains to be seen, is how the new mayor of Denver elected April 4 will work with the school board in funding officers this year, or in the future.